Mid-State 6 merging with the Big 12

There’s finally a home for the four schools of the Mid-State 6 Conference.

District 150’s three high schools — Central, Manual and Richwoods — will join the Big Twelve Conference. District 150 administration is finalizing the agreement.

Notre Dame’s move to the league also is official, according to ND athletics director Matt Blackford.

“We have accepted their invitation,” said Blackford, who noted the Notre Dame board voted unanimously last week to join the league. “We’re looking forward to having a relationship with them.”

The Big Twelve currently includes nine schools: Bloomington, Champaign Centennial, Champaign Central, Danville, Decatur Eisenhower, Decatur MacArthur, Normal West, Normal Community and Urbana. The two Decatur schools will join the Central State Eight after this school year, leaving the Big Twelve with just seven.

Sources had told the Journal Star in November that the Big Twelve extended an invitation to the M-S 6 in October, asking the Peoria-based, four-school league to consider a merger for all sports. The merger was on the agenda for the December meeting with the M-S 6’s athletics directors.

“It’s definitely moving forward,” District 150 spokesman Chris Coplan said. “If all goes as planned, 2015-2016 will be the first (season) for all sports.”

Coplan said as early as next season — 2014-2015 — teams from both leagues may play each other in nonconference matchups or tournament play. Competitions in wrestling, track, golf and cross country will reportedly be played as conference contests next school year.

“We’d like to do that, but it’s going to be January before we can sit down as a conference and decide exactly what we’re going to do,” Blackford said. “It’s likely that we’ll do something in those sports.”

The Mid-State 6 made a bid to the Western Big Six in spring 2012 to join the league in all sports. But the WB6 countered, and a football-only merger began in 2013. At that point, other sports were also up for discussion.

Last month, however, the WB6 announced it would no longer pursue the all-sports merger with the M-S 6. The schools will still play against one another in the 2014 football season.

“If that’s the path they choose, I wish them nothing but success,” WB6 president Tim Wernentin told the Moline Dispatch. “We will continue to explore expansion opportunities as they arise.”

Acting Mid-State 6 president and Peoria High principal Brett Elliott told the Journal Star in November what had transpired between the Mid-State 6 and Western Big Six is one of the reasons his league was taking its time with accepting the bid to the Big Twelve.

Page 2 of 2 - Adam Duvall can be reached at 686-3207 or aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.